There is Hope: Preaching at Funerals

By Paul Beasley-Murray

250,000 people die in the UK each year, and almost half will have a Christian funeral service. Preaching at a funeral is a vital part of pastoral ministry, but too often funeral sermons consist of generalities and platitudes used for multiple services rather than illuminating the hope gifted to us by the resurrection.

In There is Hope veteran pastor Paul Beasley-Murray offers practical advice to help Christian leaders craft meaningful, biblically driven sermons and preach with confidence and compassion at funeral services.

Drawing on his years of experience, he offers a sensitive, pastorally rich exposition of twenty key Bible passages, exploring how preachers can draw on them to show the hope beyond death that the Gospel offers. Alongside are funeral sermon examples that he has preached himself, as well as ideas, outlines and guidance for writing your own.

There is Hope is the perfect book for ordinands and preachers who are new to giving funeral sermons, as well as for experienced preachers and pastors wanting to improve and grow in their pastoral ministry and are looking for new ideas for funeral sermons.

Full of biblical depth, this guide will equip priests and pastors with all the tools they need to deliver comforting funeral sermons that truly deliver the message that even in death, in the Gospel there is hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP
• Release date: Dec 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781789743630

Paul Beasley-Murray

Paul Beasley-Murray is senior minister at a thriving Baptist church in southern England. He has served as a missionary in Congo (Zaire) and as principal of Spurgeon's College in London.

Book preview

‘I wish I had been given this book when I first entered ministry. The biblical exegesis is extremely helpful, which should come as no surprise given Paul’s academic rigour. His ability to communicate is second to none. I devoured this book like a hungry man presented with a hearty meal, and I would encourage anyone involved in the ministry to the bereaved to feast on its delights too. This is a great book, and it deserves to be widely read.’

Pastor Rob James, Baptist minister, writer, broadcaster and Executive Chair of Evangelical Alliance Wales

‘This is a unique and treasure laden book that provides a rich resource for the preacher tasked with preaching into the important, but often difficult, occasion of a funeral. At the hands of a master exegete and honed pastor, the reader is led on a hope-filled journey that models how one can powerfully yet sensitively bring the good news of Jesus into the nuances of grief and loss in a multitude of contexts. This is an excellent book, and it ought to be on the shelves of every preacher in the land.’

Rev Jitesh Patel, Assistant Director of St Mellitus College East Midlands, convener of the New Wine Preaching Conferences

‘With characteristic comprehensive clarity, Paul Beasley-Murray gives us practical and theological examples of different angles to preach at funerals. Using real life sermons, from real funerals, he weaves different themes and situations to give the preacher different tools to employ. In a society where funerals increasingly focus on the eulogy, here is a timely reminder that the Christian faith offers what secular celebrants never can – real hope based on the fact of the person of Jesus Christ. While it is true that what most people will remember is how they feel at a funeral, Beasley-Murray shares a lifetime of pastoral ministry that gives hope when the feelings fade. As always with Paul, you may not always agree with him but you will be made to think. I commend this book to the person asked to take a family funeral because, ‘unlike the rest of the family, you’re religious’ and the experienced preacher alike. The contexts may vary but the truth does not change – we have a hope in a world where that is an increasingly rare commodity.’

The Rev Canon David Richards, St Paul’s and St George’s Church, Edinburgh 

‘Paul Beasley-Murray has done it again! The minister’s minister has mined his decades of pastoral experience, theological reflection and effective communication to bring us an exceptionally useful guide to a particularly challenging subject – preaching at funeral services.

Avoiding tired generalities, Beasley-Murray combines scholarship with accessibility and profundity with practicality. He skilfully expounds twenty passages – followed by twenty sermons – to help us, whatever our age or stage, not merely with the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of this exacting preaching challenge, but most importantly, the ‘why’. Here is a truly hope-filled book to inform and inspire, packed with practical wisdom, grounded in rich experience and deep theology, enlivened by gentle scholarship and brilliant quotation. This is a book to savour – and to plunder – as we sharpen our message of gospel hope!’

His Honour Judge David Turner QC, Circuit Judge and Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester, Deputy President of the Clergy Discipline Commission and a Reader in the Diocese of London

Paul Beasley-Murray was born on 14 March 1944. He read Modern Languages (French and German) and Theology at Jesus College, Cambridge. While completing a PhD in New Testament studies under F. F. Bruce at Manchester University, he trained for the ministry at the Northern Baptist College, Manchester, and at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Rüschlikon-Zurich. Ordained on 10 October 1970, he served with the Baptist Missionary Society in the Democratic Republic of the Congo/Zaire, where he taught New Testament and Greek in the Protestant Theological Faculty of the National University from 1970 to 1972. Paul pastored two churches: Altrincham Baptist Church, Cheshire, from 1973 to 1986 and Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford, Essex, from 1993 to 2014. He was also Principal of Spurgeon’s College, London, from 1986 to 1992.

His wife, Caroline Beasley-Murray OBE, was for over twenty years HM Senior Coroner for Essex. Paul and Caroline have four married children and eight grandchildren.

Throughout his ministry Paul has been a prolific author. IVP have published several of his books: The Message of the Resurrection (2000); Joy to the World: Preaching at Christmas (2005) and Transform Your Church: 50 Very Practical Steps (2005). Other books include Power for God’s Sake? Power and Abuse in the Local Church (Paternoster, 1998; Wipf & Stock, 2005); Living out the Call Book 1: Living to God’s Glory; 2: Leading God’s Church; 3: Reaching God’s World; 4: Serving God’s People (Feed-a-Read, 2015, revised); This is My Story: A Story of Life, Faith and Ministry (Wipf & Stock, 2018); Make the Most of Retirement: A Guide for Ministers (Bible Reading Fellowship, 2020) and Fifty Lessons on Ministry: Reflections after Fifty Years in Ministry (Darton, Longman & Todd, 2020).

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INTER-VARSITY PRESS

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Website: www.ivpbooks.com

© Paul Beasley-Murray, 2021

Paul Beasley-Murray has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked

esv

are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked

gnb

are from the Good News Bible © 1994 published by the Bible Societies/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd UK, Good News Bible © American Bible Society 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked

niv

are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicized edition). Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘

niv

’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations marked

reb

are from the Revised English Bible, copyright © Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press 1989.

Scripture quotations marked

rnjb

are from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., and used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked The Message are from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978–1–78974–362–3

eBook ISBN: 978–1–78974–363–0

Set in Minion Pro 11/14pt

Typeset in Great Britain by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire

eBook by CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

Produced on paper from sustainable sources

Inter-Varsity Press publishes Christian books that are true to the Bible and that communicate the gospel, develop discipleship and strengthen the church for its mission in the world.

IVP originated within the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, now the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions in universities and colleges throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: www.uccf.org.uk. That historic association is maintained, and all senior IVP staff and committee members subscribe to the UCCF Basis of Faith.

Dedicated to the memory of my mother,

Ruth Beasley-Murray,

3 June 1922–1 December 2020

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Part 1

INTRODUCTION

The gospel is a message of hope

Part 2

HOPE IN THE GOSPELS

1 Mark 10:13–16: Jesus has a special love for children

2 Luke 20:27–40: In the new world everything will be different

3 John 3:16; 10:10: Eternal life

4 John 11:1–44: Jesus offers life to all

5 John 14:1–6: Jesus calls us to place our hope in him

Part 3

HOPE IN THE LETTERS OF PAUL

6 Romans 8:31–39: Nothing can separate us from the love of God

7 1 Corinthians 15:3–5, 20, 24–28, 54–57: Jesus, not death, has the last word

8 1 Corinthians 15:35–48: We shall be changed

9 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18: We will be together

10 2 Timothy 4:6–8: Homeward bound

Part 4

HOPE IN THE REST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

11 Hebrews 6:17–19: Our hope is sure and certain

12 1 Peter 1:3–8: We have a living hope

13 1 John 2:28 – 3:3: We shall see God

14 Revelation 7:9–17: We shall share in the life of heaven

15 Revelation 21:1–7: God will make all things new

Part 5

HOPE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

16 Job 19:25–27: Past injustices will be put right

17 Psalm 16: The path that leads to life

18 Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd will go with us

19 Psalm 121: God will keep us safe

20 Psalm 139:1–12: God is with us, even in the dark

Part 6

HOPE FOR ALL?

God loves us all

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Losing a loved one: a personal reflection

Appendix 2: The funeral of a baby who died in the womb

Appendix 3: Reflections on the funeral of a twenty-one-year-old suicide

Appendix 4: Practicalities following a death

Notes

Search items for authors and subjects

Search items for Scripture references

Foreword

Rather than joining in the popular sport of ‘What they didn’t teach you at theological college’, I want to say how grateful I was for the instruction I received in how to conduct and speak at funeral services. Nothing, however, quite prepares you, as a young minister, for having to speak on a reasonably frequent basis at funerals and for the variety of circumstances you are addressing. I remember, in my early years in ministry, searching around for help, to find only one brief guide published by Grove Books. There were books galore on the liturgy, but virtually nothing on preaching.

If only Paul Beasley-Murray’s book had been available then! Paul, a veteran pastor and theologian, has provided us with a wonderful resource that will enrich the ministry of many. The introduction alone is helpful. It succinctly, but not simplistically, covers a number of areas, including contemporary attitudes to death, the unique Christian hope of the resurrection and, most helpful of all, discusses what is the purpose and nature of a sermon at a funeral, and even its length. Even if readers come to different conclusions than Paul’s on some issues, his book sets out the issues we all have to settle about our role in preaching at funerals.

The introduction is followed by twenty sermons actually preached at funerals. As real-life (sorry, about that!) sermons, they encompass a variety of situations and people whose lives are being commended to God: believers and unbelievers, young and old; those who died after a long life and those who died, from our viewpoint, all too soon; the ones very personal to us and ones for people we did not know at all. The appendices offer further help for the difficult funerals that we all have to take from time to time.

The addresses have all the hallmarks of Paul’s ministry. They are thoughtful, appropriate, well-researched, theologically literate, communicated in an interesting way and have a fitting evangelistic edge. There is substance here without the content being overly heavy. The variety of Scripture passages on which they are based shows something of the multiple relevant voices found in the Bible, which will help any pastor to avoid predictability and repetition.

No doubt, many readers may seek to simply reproduce these sermons. That would be a mistake. If preaching is ‘truth through personality’, as Phillips Brooks famously claimed, we need to preach our own sermons, not Paul’s (Beasley-Murray, that is, not the apostle!) But Paul’s may provide a model and guide. They will also prove a wonderful resource, as they are full of quotable quotes, illustrations and insights that few will be able, or should try, to resist.

Even today, when there are fifty-seven varieties of funerals and celebrants who have no religious faith are becoming common, the conduct of funerals in our churches remains one of the most significant ministries we can undertake, reaching many of no faith or fringe faith, as well as pastoring the people of God. My wife and I can both bear witness to the impact funerals can have, providing people with an opportunity to take their first steps towards joining the community of faith. I remember asking Romanian Christian friends during Ceausescu’s day how they made an impact for Christ, given the restrictions they suffered. ‘Funerals’ was the surprising answer! I also remember Professor Tony Walter, an expert in death studies, saying in a lecture some years ago that conducting funerals was one of the church in the UK’s most missed opportunities.

To make them meaningful, we need all the help we can get. Books on this field are very rare indeed. We should be thankful to Paul Beasley-Murray for giving us many examples of how to minister effectively to people at a sensitive point in their lives. It is to be hoped that this book will not only prove a great resource but also stimulate creativity on our own part, to speak of our central hope at a time when many face only darkness and despair.

The Reverend Dr Derek Tidball

Baptist minister and author, formerly pastor and principal of London School of Theology

Preface

As I said in my initial submission to IVP, there are plenty of books on preaching and plenty of books on funerals, but – within a British context at least – I am not aware of any guide to preaching at funerals.

¹

This, I dare to believe, is one of the great strengths of There Is Hope: Preaching at Funerals. Another strength is that it reflects my experience of taking hundreds of funerals: although I have been involved in theological education (for two years in an African university and for six years as principal of Spurgeon’s College), for almost thirty-five years I was a pastor.

My experience of ministry is reflected in the way in which the book is constructed. Each section is in two parts: first, I have expounded the passage in question and in so doing have drawn upon the insights of others; then I have reproduced a sermon I preached on the passage. As readers will notice, I have also ensured that the sermons reflect a wide variety of pastoral situations, ranging from a baby who died in the womb to a twenty-one-year-old student who took his own life; from an eighteen-year-old who died from a genetic disorder to a ninety-eight-year-old who longed to see her Saviour; from a woman cut down in her prime by cancer to a dementia sufferer who had become a shadow of his former self. The twenty sermons reflect not only a wide variety of Scripture passages but also a wide variety of settings.

Some readers might be surprised to see that I have chosen the New Revised Standard Version (nrsv) over against the New International Version (niv) as my preferred English text and might be tempted to question my evangelical credentials. However, my choice reflects my background: as a member of the Society of New Testament Studies, I was influenced by the fact that that the nrsv is the preferred version of almost all British university theological faculties. Nonetheless, recognizing that the preferred version of many of my readers will be the niv, I have quoted from the niv whenever this deviates from the nrsv. I have also quoted from three other versions. In the first place, there is the Good News Bible (gnb), which for many years has been my preferred version for preaching, on the grounds that with its limited vocabulary – it was produced with non-English-speaking readers in mind – it is the most easily understood translation for the average person. In the second place, I use the Revised English Bible (reb), a revision of the New English Bible, which was presented to me on the occasion of my ordination in 1970 and happens to be not just a good translation but also the only truly British translation. Third, I quote from the Revised New Jerusalem Bible (rnjb), which, in spite of its Roman Catholic origin, is unbiased ‘confessionally’ and is often exceedingly fresh. In addition, I have quoted from the English Standard Version (esv), perhaps the most literal translation of English translations of the Bible, which has gained favour with many evangelical Christians. Finally, from time to time I have quoted from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase The Message, which sometimes really hits the spot.

To save misunderstanding, I need to make it clear that when I have quoted somebody with approval, this does not necessarily mean that I agree with every aspect of that person’s theological position. Needless to say, this applies not just to Pope Francis and Pope John XXIII (both of whom I have quoted) but also to Anglicans, Methodists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians and even to some fellow Baptists! My experience over the years is that I have been enriched by many of those with whom I have not appeared to have much in common. Not to be prepared to learn from other traditions is a bit like singing hymns written only by fellow evangelicals – how constricting that would be, not least at Christmas.

Finally, I have tended to use people’s real names unless I felt there was a good pastoral reason for anonymity, in which case I have made one up. Nowhere, however, have I indicated whether I am using a real name or a fictional name.

Part 1

Introduction

The gospel is a message of hope

May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

(Rom. 15:13)

Christian hope is resurrection hope

The good news is that there is hope – God raised Jesus from the dead! ‘God’, wrote the apostle Peter, ‘has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ (1 Pet. 1:3). It was ‘concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead’ that the apostle Paul was on trial (Acts 23:6; see also 26:6).

‘Christian hope is resurrection hope’ declared brilliant German theologian Jürgen Moltmann in his groundbreaking book devoted to the ‘Last Things’.

¹

This hope is at the heart of Christian believing, and what a difference this hope makes. When Cardinal Hume, a former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he rang to tell his friend Timothy Wright, the Abbott of Ampleforth, who replied ‘Congratulations! That’s brilliant news. I wish I was coming with you!’

²

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German Christian who was put to death by Hitler’s henchmen, evinced a similar confidence in life after death when he declared, ‘Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom.’ As he was taken away to be hanged, he said to a British fellowprisoner, ‘This is the end – for me, the beginning of life.’

³

Christian hope is not a whistling in the dark but is sure and certain. In the Church of England’s committal service, the dead are committed to be buried or cremated

in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life

through our Lord Jesus Christ,

who will transform our frail bodies

that they may be conformed to his glorious body,

who died, was buried, and rose again for us.

⁴

Christian hope is not a form of optimism. Indeed, according to the American theologian Stanley Hauerwas, optimism is a form of ‘hope without truth’.

⁵

Rather, Christian hope is based upon a past reality, for the Bible teaches that in rising from the dead Jesus blazed a trail through the valley of the shadow down which those who have put their trust in him may follow too. In the words of Jesus, with which I begin every funeral, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live’ (John 11:25).

Yes, there is hope. Over the years I have had many occasions to study the New Testament documents. As a PhD student I devoted three years of my life to examining the implications of the resurrection of Jesus for the early church. Later, after using a sabbatical to study the resurrection further, I wrote a book for preachers, The Message of the Resurrection.

⁶

Today I am more convinced than ever that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that in doing so he broke down death’s defences for all who believe.

Our hope for the future is secure

We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

(Rom. 5:2)

‘Christian hope’, said Pope Francis, ‘is not a ghost and it does not deceive. It is a theological virtue and therefore, ultimately, a gift from God that cannot be reduced to optimism, which is only human. God does not mislead hope; God cannot deny himself. God is all promise.’

⁷

What a contrast there is between Christian hope and hope as understood by the ancient Greeks. My attention was drawn recently to the story of Pandora. According to a Greek myth found in one of Hesiod’s poems, Prometheus stole the secret of fire from the gods and shared it with humankind. As an act of revenge, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create the first woman, which he did out of earth and water, and ordered each of the other gods to endow her with a ‘seductive gift’. Zeus named this ‘beautiful evil’ Pandora (‘all-gifted’) and sent her off to Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus. Pandora had been warned not to open the jar (today known as a ‘box’ because of a sixteenth-century mistranslation), but her natural curiosity got the better of her. As she lifted the lid, she released every evil on to the earth, bringing the world’s golden age to its close. Aghast, she hastened to replace the lid, but the contents of the jar had already escaped – all except hope. ‘This’, wrote Hesiod, ‘was the will of aegis-bearing Zeus the Cloudgatherer.’

⁸

Down through the centuries there has been much debate about the significance of hope in Pandora’s box. Does it imply that hope is preserved to make the sufferings of this life more bearable? Or, in what is a story of revenge, does it mean that hope is denied to us, making life all the more miserable? Or, like the other contents of the jar, is hope an evil, bringing torment to us? It is this third interpretation that Friedrich Nietzsche adopted: ‘Man’, he wrote, ‘believes the ill which remains within [the jar] to be the greatest blessing . . . Hope, in reality, is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of Man.’

⁹

Whereas for Christians hope is a positive virtue, in the ancient world hope was viewed as a delusion. In a famous speech recorded by Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War the Athenians declare somewhat cynically:

Hope, danger’s comforter, may be indulged in by those who have abundant resources, if not without loss at all events without ruin; but its nature is to be extravagant, and those who go so far as to put their all upon the venture see it in its true colours only when they are ruined; but so long as the discovery would enable them to guard against it, it is never found wanting.

¹⁰

Hope, as far as Thucydides was concerned, deceives and misleads. Or, as the agnostic American politician Robert Ingersoll said in